I don't own Naruto, but it means a lot to me.


Shikamaru's visits are among her most frustrating.

"What if I have..."

"No."

"But it could be!"

"It's not."

She isn't sure when the village savant had become a hypochondriac, but his insistence on self-diagnosis was bothersome to the nth degree. Sakura struggles to comprehend why someone so smart would bring himself to the brink of a physical panic attack over a non-existent ailment. Every visit brings with it some new, ghastly and inevitably terminal illness. And yet, like clockwork, the worst prognosis she'd ever returned him was strep throat. How can he not see the insanity behind that kind of logic? How are all those brains not acknowledging what she says?

As the man furiously flips through his "Oyam Clinic Guide to Medicine", Sakura restrains her exasperation only barely. Clearly, being the smartest man in every room for thirty years wasn't all its cracked up to be.

"You know," she offers, trying to refrain from ripping the journal from his hands. "You're really giving yourself a lot of stress about this. Isn't this, what did you use to call it, troublesome?"

Shikimaru pauses at the insinuation, but he immediately returns to his research. Sakura's frown deepens.

"Shikamaru." She warns, her teeth grating against one another.

"Look, Sakura." The strategist intejects, pointing urgently to a new passage outlining the common side effects of stage four tuberculosis. "This is fitting! I could be wasting away in months, and it could be..."

"I've tried and I've tried." She interrupts. "But my patience is in a state of non-existence. Either let me do my job," she says with her eyes narrowing, "Or I will give you new injuries to go home and play doctor on."

Shikamaru swallows, and his hands move to the corners of his book. Something in the pinkette's tone stirs memories of the haymakers Naruto used to endure when he explored the boundaries of Sakura's patience. But he's a shinobi - a warrior to the core. He's fought gods and monsters and everything in between. He won't be scared off by just threats of...

"And I'll tell Temari."

Shikamaru coughs, rough and heavy, as he sits up like lightning in his seat. His book, forgotten, makes a dull thud as it plummets to the floor.

"Please continue, Sakura." he insists. Sakura only nods, giving a quiet hum as she completed the examination.


Some of these are short, some are longer. This was the 2nd shortest.

Enjoy and stay safe.

-Free Drinks